Check out TNR today for America blogger Michael Sean Winter’s take on the Catholic vote and how it may hurt, or help, Barack Obama:
Barack Obama has a Catholic problem. While Catholics constitute only 23 percent of the nation’s population, their numbers are higher in such critical states as Nevada, Wisconsin, New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. And he lost badly among those voters this winter and spring.
(snip)
In 2008, with all the focus on the economy, Catholics are ripe for Obama to pick if he can master the distinctive ways they view economic issues. Unlike the gloom-and-doom preaching of Calvin’s heirs, Catholicism has a more positive take on the possibilities of human culture and politics that would fit Obama’s politics of hope nicely. And unlike the disconnected, valueless recipes for economic policy that have plagued previous Democratic campaigns, Obama can unite his policies into a moral vision for where he wants to lead America.
Tim Reidy